Super Smash Bros. “All Star Mode” Pits You Against Every Character Chronologically

Because fighting against three characters at a time is just not enough, Nintendo has confirmed that a new mode in Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS and Wii U will allow players to battle against them all.

So far, the official roster stands at 38 playable characters, and in this new “All Star Mode,” you’ll be tasked with taking down every single one chronologically based on their first appearance in video game history. Director Masahiro Sakurai explains it all on his Miiverse account.

This time, you can challenge every fighter in All-Star Mode from the moment you turn on the game!! This is a survival battle with limited recovery items and no option to continue. However, this mode will be incomplete until you’ve unlocked every fighter… Until then, you can only play against characters that are already available. This is a picture of the bottom-screen menu, with a padlock indicating that the mode is still incomplete.

In these battles, multiple opponents appear in one stage, and you clear the battle by defeating a number of them. The rest area that appears between battles displays the next opponents and the year the characters made their first appearances, and it also holds recovery items and an occasional reward. The characters you fight against appear pretty much in chronological order. Behold, the history of Nintendo games!!

Sounds interesting, especially if you love video game history and want to live through the early days of all these really old characters. From the officially announced ones, we will obviously start the round against Pac-Man, created in 1980, and wrapping up with not the Wii Fit Trainer, not Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles, and not even Lucina or Robin from Fire Emblem Awakening.

Quick, who is the newest character of the bunch? Spoilers below!

It’s the Pokemon Geninja! Yes, Pokemon X and Y is the most recent game to have a playable character as it hit the shelves worldwide on October 12, 2013.

Super Smash Bros. will be released for the Nintendo 3DS on October 3rd. The Wii U version is expected later in the holiday season.